The Sorrow of War

by

Bảo Ninh

Patriotism, Sacrifice, and Skepticism Theme Analysis

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Memory, Trauma, and Moving On Theme Icon
Love in Times of Hardship Theme Icon
Coping Through Writing Theme Icon
Patriotism, Sacrifice, and Skepticism Theme Icon
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Patriotism, Sacrifice, and Skepticism ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Patriotism, Sacrifice, and Skepticism appears in each part of The Sorrow of War. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Patriotism, Sacrifice, and Skepticism Quotes in The Sorrow of War

Below you will find the important quotes in The Sorrow of War related to the theme of Patriotism, Sacrifice, and Skepticism.
Pages 8-26 Quotes

One southern soldier behind a tree fired hastily and the full magazine of thirty rounds from his AK exploded loudly around Kien, but he had walked on unharmed. Kien had not returned fire even when just a few steps from his prey, as though he wanted to give his enemy a chance to survive, to give him more time to change magazines, or time to take sure aim and kill him.

Related Characters: Kien (The Writer)
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

The name, age, and image of someone who’d been every bit as brave under fire as his comrades, who had set a fine example, suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Except within the mind of Kien. Can’s image haunted him every night, returning during the night to whisper to him by his hammock, repeating the final, gloomy lines he’d spoken by the stream. The whisper would turn into a suffocating gasp, like the sound of water blocking the throat of a drowning man.

Related Characters: Kien (The Writer), Can
Related Symbols: The Jungle of Screaming Souls
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:
Pages 26-44 Quotes

He recalled the standing orders from the political commissar: “It is necessary to readjust, rectify, and re-establish the rules, the morals and behavior of your men, when there are breaches.” Of course that would have meant pulling the soldiers out, snapping them out of their romantic spell. Kien’s heart would never allow him to truly discipline those boys. It begged him to keep silent and sympathize with the young lovers. What else could they do? They were powerless against the frenzied forces of young love which now controlled their bodies.

Related Characters: Kien (The Writer)
Page Number: 29-30
Explanation and Analysis:
Pages 44-56 Quotes

The future lied to us, there long ago in the past. There is no new life, no new era, nor is it hope for a beautiful future that now drives me on, but rather the opposite. The hope is contained in the beautiful prewar past.

Related Characters: Kien (The Writer)
Page Number: 47
Explanation and Analysis:
Pages 100-108 Quotes

“No. I mean it. That slob gave us a sort of warning: Don’t criticize others. Be sure of yourself first.”

Kien frowned, then walked away. “Be sure of yourself first, what a joke!” Kien said to himself. He recalled Oanh’s death a month earlier, the morning his regiment attacked the police headquarters at Buon Me Thuot.

Related Characters: Kien (The Writer) (speaker), Oanh
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Pages 116-146 Quotes

“There’s no other night like this. You’re offering your life for a cause so I’ve decided to waste mine too. This year we’re both seventeen. Let’s plan to meet each other again somewhere at some future point. See if we still love each other as much as we do now.”

Related Characters: Phuong (speaker), Kien (The Writer)
Page Number: 136
Explanation and Analysis:

But at the last moment, as he was about to press the trigger with the gun aimed directly at them, he gave them a reprieve.

It was not because of their pleading, nor because of prompting from his colleagues. No, it was because Phuong’s words had come to him like an inner voice: “So, you’ll kill lots of men? That’ll make you a hero, I suppose?”

Related Characters: Phuong (speaker), Kien (The Writer)
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:
Pages 146-200 Quotes

Not one of them asked about Hoa. At first he found it disagreeably strange. Then, with its acceptance, he too began to forget about her. Was it that such sacrifices were now an everyday occurrence? Or that they were expected, even of such young people? Or worse, that they were too concerned worrying about their own safety to bother with others?

Related Characters: Kien (The Writer), Hoa
Page Number: 192
Explanation and Analysis:

It all seemed so long ago, and because he couldn’t even find the head-shaped rock—it had been blown apart or washed away—it seemed a touch unlikely that it had ever happened. Of course it had, but not even finding the clearing where he had last seen her allowed him that escape into such possibilities.

What remained was sorrow, the immense sorrow, the sorrow of having survived. The sorrow of war.

Related Characters: Kien (The Writer), Hoa
Page Number: 192
Explanation and Analysis: